O’Reilly Wrongly Attacks Colmes Again, This Time Over Taxes

Bill O’Reilly made another unwarranted attack on Alan Colmes last night – after Colmes spoke the truth. This time, the topic was taxes. Colmes correctly argued that while the government may be collecting more dollars in taxes, Americans’ tax rates are lower than in decades. O’Reilly accused Colmes of “doing what you always do: sleight of hand, three-card monte.” In fact, it was O’Reilly and the other guest, Monica Crowley, who were pulling the fast one.

Colmes: We’re paying less in taxes as a percentage of our income than we’ve paid for decades.

O’Reilly: No, because there are more individual taxes, alright? You are doing what you always do, sleight of hand, three-card monte. …I will pay for a little card table and you go out in front of Fox News on Sixth Avenue with three things and go like this (he imitated a three-card monte dealer) and take all the tourists’ money. ‘Cause you’re a three-card monte guy.

There are more taxes on everything. People pay more on everything even though your rate may be lower on the fed.

(M)ost Americans in 2010 paid far less in total taxes — federal, state and local — than they would have paid 30 years ago.According to an analysis by The New York Times, the combination of all income taxes, sales taxes and property taxes took a smaller share of their income than it took from households with the same inflation-adjusted income in 1980.

Households earning more than $200,000 benefited from the largest percentage declines in total taxation as a share of income. Middle-income households benefited, too. More than 85 percent of households with earnings above $25,000 paid less in total taxes than comparable households in 1980.

Of course, the same is not true for lower-income households:

Lower-income households, however, saved little or nothing. Many pay no federal income taxes, but they do pay a range of other levies, like federal payroll taxes, state sales taxes and local property taxes. Only about half of taxpaying households with incomes below $25,000 paid less in 2010.

The uneven decline is a result of two trends. Congress cut federal taxation at every income level over the last 30 years. State and local taxes, meanwhile, increased for most Americans. Those taxes generally take a larger share of income from those who make less, so the increases offset more and more of the federal savings at lower levels of income.

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It seems like a required mantra of wingnutz and it certainly was one of the teabagged whines.

T axed
E nough
A lready

One of the reasons, not the only one but Billdo couldn’t be bothered with reasoning, behind taxes is to discourage harmful activities or behavior. That is why we, the society, have decided to place extremely high taxes on smoking. I don’t smoke, so it doesn’t bother me but I have friends who do smoke and every time tobacco taxes go up, they try to reduce their appetite.

I don’t know where Billdo lives. Well, actually… anyway.
The tax on plastic bags has been around for some ten years, in different places of the WORLD. Because people all over would do the same, drop their plastic bags on the street and wait for wind or rain to “clean” the street but clogging the sewers. You don’t want to pay for plastic bags, Billdo. Don’t use them.

We have similar situations for other recyclable materials, paper, metals, glass. Even water.
The sewage treatment plant that is Fox News should know this.
There are size limits on the turds they are allowed to release to the public. But once in a while, Billdo gets away.

Junior will just smirk, and tell his Archie Bunker audience “The New York Times reported this, but my interpretation is the right one. I will continue to look out for you.” Junior, you play your audience like a Stradivarius